6 Quick Tips: Driving Repeat Traffic to Your Site

Publishers like me often use Twitter to link to newly posted content at their Websites. However, I link back to my own site only once or twice a week, choosing instead to link more frequently to other Internet Marketing tools and resources that we find around the Web while creating each issue of Web Digest For Marketers.

One thing I have noticed is the click-throughs to my own site are often higher than to those other tools and resources around the Web. But, this doesn't necessarily mean that all my Tweets should point to my own site.

I notice my own behavior when following other publishers' Tweets is to pay less attention to their feeds overall when they solely point to their own sites. It's like getting too many press releases from the same source. Give your followers link diversity and artfully blend in links to your own site.

2. Remember Your RSS Feed? Even though Web 2.0 endeavors like Facebook and Twitter grab the limelight these days, lots of people still consume content through RSS readers and/or have those feeds sent to them via email.

I take in large swaths of content this way and will do so for some time to come. Many of these feeds to readers and through email systems are on autopilot and crank away without too much supervision.

In the scores of feeds I receive, I very rarely get links back to the site where the content originates. It seems like a no-brainer to include links "back to the mother ship" in every RSS feed sent out. It should be part of the format or template.

3. In-Store to the Inbox: If you want to see a fine example of integrating bricks-and-mortar sales with online sales, buy something at Staples, and be sure to sign up for its rewards program.

My office manager bought one ream of printer paper recently. Days later, Staples sent an email with the subject header "Thanks for your purchase - Open for more great products." In that email, Staples asked her to fill out a user review on that ream of paper.

OK, let's face it: If somebody is going to write a user review on a ream of printer paper, he just might have too much time on his hands. :) But had the purchase been a printer, a computer or some other considered purchase item, it could have given this customer reason enough to go to the Staples site and post a review.

Furthermore, Staples has a printer cartridge recycling program and gives you credit for each one brought into the store. These credits have a limited life span. Each month, they send a "reward check" that is redeemable only at Staples, thus inducing additional sales. Brilliant.

4. White Paper Links: If you're in the Internet Marketing industry, you're probably well aware of the time-honored practice of featuring a high quality content PDF for download. The interested party fills out a registration form and gets the white paper thereafter. Prospects who are of high enough quality are apt to get a call or follow-up email from the sponsoring company.

But, there is a latency factor that must be considered. Many people downloading such a white paper could be in their "wool-gathering" stage, many months away from seriously considering the services of the sponsoring company. In short, they might not be ready when you want them to be.

I have white papers attached to emails in my inbox and sitting on my desktop that I've been meaning to get to for a long time. I just looked; the oldest one in my inbox right now is 13 months old. My bet is you have some that are that old, maybe older. For this latent audience, you want to have beaucoup links to your site where they can "re-engage" months after the initial contact.

Also, keep in mind that one of the beauties of PDF white papers is the ease with which they can be passed along to other prospects by those who originally requested your white paper.

Hint: Don't forget to offer an email update service for new content posted to your site when the prospect initially registers to download your white paper.

5. Come Back for a Better Deal: More ecommerce sites are incorporating follow-up emails to those customers who abandoned shopping carts or search for something and leave thereafter.

It is an eerie feeling to get a targeted email that offers a better deal or product offering very similar to the one I searched on moments ago. But, the value of such an offer attracts and intrigues me enough to get over my "Big Brother" apprehensions. I've seen research lately that shows the younger you are, the less you seem to mind such tracking.

If your firm is going to invest in such behavior-tracking technology, make sure you've got the deals and interesting product alternatives available so that the follow-up offer inspires your customer to return to the site for the win-back sale.

6. Start in Print; Finish Online: Print and other traditional media aren't as fast and trackable as online. But a partial solution is to start a meaningful message in newsprint or in a direct mail package that gives the reader an incentive to go to a trackable URL for the payoff.

In print, you might offer exclusive coupons waiting for the reader at your Website or a password to download games. For a B2B campaign, your print ad running in a trade publication can feature an abstract of a white paper that is available for download at your Website. Because the source of leads comes from a trade publication, it's a good bet those leads are pretty qualified.